<*> 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

O:R 


Accession  No.  °/8  6~6~^  .    Class  No* 


OF  THTi 

UNIVERSITY 


CEREMONIES 

ATTENDING  THE  UNVEILING 


OF  THE 


STATUE  OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

i 

JUNE  14,  1899 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  CITY  OF  PHILADELPHIA 


BY 


MR.  JUSTUS   C.  STRAWBRIDGE 


PHILADELPHIA 

PRINTED  BY  ALLEN,  LANE  &  SCOTT 
1899 


Committee  on  arrangements 


DR.  CHARLES  CUSTIS  HARRISON, 

Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

DR.  COLEMAN  SELLERS, 

Vice-President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 

JAMES  G.  BARNWELL,  ESQ., 

Librarian,  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia. 

BENJAMIN  H.  SHOEMAKER,  ESQ., 

President  Pennsylvania  Hospital. 

JUDGE  SAMUEL  W.  PENNYPACKER, 

The  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

JOHN  BIRKINBINE,  ESQ., 

President  of  Franklin  Institute. 


/IDarsbal 

CHARLES  W.  DUANE, 

Of  Cambridge,  Mass. 


Hsstetant  flUarsbals 

FRANKLIN  BACHE,  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  PEPPER, 

R.  NORRIS  WILLIAMS,  THOMAS  LEIPER  HODGE. 

[All  of  whom  are  descendants  of  Benjamin  Franklin.] 


Containing  tbe  Hfc&resses  of 

PAGE. 

Provost  Charles  C.  Harrison ,  15 

Hon.  James  M.  Beck 17 

Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  Mayor  ot  Boston 49 

Hon.    Charles   Emory    Smith,    Postmaster-General    of  the 

United  States 53 

Hon.  Samuel  H.  Ashbridge,  Mayor  of  Philadelphia     ....  56 


Untrobuction 


Introduction 


THIS  volume  is  prepared  as  a  memorial  of  the 
presentation  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia  of  the  statue 
of  Benjamin  Franklin,  by  Mr.  Justus  C.  Straw- 
bridge,  of  Philadelphia.  His  attention  was  directed 
to  the  fact  that  there  did  not  exist  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia  a  fitting  monument  to  its  greatest  citizen. 
While  we  cannot  claim  Franklin  as  a  Philadelphian 
by  birth,  it  is  remembered  that  he  came  to  us  un 
heralded  by  fame,  cast  his  lot  with  our  people,  and 
here  took  his  chances  in  the  fortunes  of  the  world — 
which  seem  to  have  dealt  generously  with  him.  It 
was  with  us  that  he  achieved  his  great  success  in 
many  fields  of  activity.  We  all  know  of  his  devo 
tion  to  the  interests  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia;  of 
the  conspicuous  services  he  rendered  the  Colony,  and 
subsequently  State,  of  Pennsylvania;  the  patriotic 
service  he  rendered  the  country  during  its  period  of 
War  for  Independence;  and  afterward,  in  the  pacific 
and  quiet  upbuilding  of  the  Republic. 

It  would  very  much  transgress  the  limits  of  this 
introduction  to  refer  even  by  title  to  the  notable 
acts  of  Franklin's  life;  or  to  recount  what  he  did  for 
science,  for  education,  or  even  in  the  thousand  and 
one  minor  ways  in  which  the  service  of  public  af 
fairs  attracted  his  active  interest;  from  the  gravest 
question  to  the  consideration  of  an  ordinance  to 

(9) 


IO  INTRODUCTION. 

keep  the  streets  of  the  town  clean;  nothing  seemed 
too  great — nothing  too  small — for  his  careful  and 
philosophical  attention. 

Our  people  have  good  reason  to  felicitate  the 
donor  of  the  beautiful  statue,  which  stands  on  the 
site  made  memorable  by  having  been  once  occupied 
by  the  noble  mansion  erected  by  Pennsylvania  to  be 
a  home  for  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
when  that  plan  failed  through  the  removal  of  the 
seat  of  Government,  by  the  University  of  Pennsyl 
vania  for  a  period  of  seventy  years,  and  now  a  per 
manent  part  of  the  public  domain  as  the  site  of  the 
United  States  Post  Office. 

The  committee  in  charge  of  these  exercises  rep 
resented  institutions  which  were  directly  or  indirectly 
brought  into  being  by  Benjamin  Franklin;  and,  in 
deed,  it  is  doubtful  if  a  parallel  case  can  be  found 
in  the  country;  for  instance,  the  Philadelphia  Hos 
pital  was  represented  on  this  Committee — the  first 
hospital  inaugurated  in  what  is  now  the  United 
States;  the  first  learned  body,  of  which  Franklin 
can  justly  be  called  the  founder,  the  Philosophical 
Society;  the  Library  Company,  and  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  All  can  trace  their  being  and  au 
thorship  to  the  marvelous  foresightedness  of  the 
man  whom  we  honor.  The  Historical  Society  and 
the  Franklin  Institute — both  organized  a  quarter  of 
a  century  or  more  subsequent  to  Franklin's  death — 
are  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  above-mentioned 
institution.  It  would  indeed  be  a  work  of  super 
erogation  to  proceed  in  this  vein. 

Prior  to  the  ceremonies  at  the  Opera  House, 
luncheon  was  served  at  the  University  Club.  At 
the  request  of  Mr.  Strawbridge,  Postmaster-Gen 
eral  Charles  Emory  Smith  bade  the  guests  welcome 
in  a  few  most  happily  chosen  words. 


INTRODUCTION.  1 1 

There  were  present  the  Hon.  Charles  Emory 
Smith,  Postmaster-General;  Wilson  S.  Bissell  and 
Thomas  L.  James,  former  Postmasters-Generals; 
Josiah  Quincy,  Mayor  of  Boston;  Mayor  Samuel  H. 
Ashbridge  and  his  predecessors  in  office,  Edwin  S. 
Stuart  and  Charles  F.  Warwick;  Charles  C.  Har 
rison,  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania; 
A.  H.  Fetterolf,  President  of  Girard  College;  Rich 
ard  Rathbun,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution;  E.  D. 
Warfield,  President  of  Lafayette  College;  Henry 
A.  Rowland,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University;  David 
P.  Todd,  of  Amherst  College;  John  Birkinbine,  of 
the  Franklin  Institute;  Coleman  Sellers,  Chairman 
of  the  Committee;  Hon.  James  M.  Beck,  orator  of 
the  day;  John  J.  Boyle,  sculptor;  E.  A.  Pesoli, 
French  Consul;  William  Sellers,  Judge  Penny- 
packer,  Joseph  G.  Rosengarten,  Dr.  John  Marshall, 
Frank  Miles  Day,  Hon.  Henry  H.  Bingham,  Hon. 
Robert  Adams,  Jr.,  Abraham  L.  English,  John  H. 
Converse,  Franklin  Bache,  Isaac  H.  Clothier, 
Dr.  Thomas  Dunn  English,  Paul  Leicester  Ford,  Syd 
ney  George  Fisher,  L.  Clarke  Davis,  Abraham  M. 
Beitler,  Eugene  Ellicott,  Horace  W.  Sellers,  B. 
Franklin  Pepper,  Benjamin  H.  Shoemaker,  J.  W. 
Bailey,  John  T.  Morris,  W.  A.  Breckenridge,  H.  H. 
Hoyt,  Jr.,  James  Mitchell,  E.  D.  Hemphill,  Jr.,  Will 
iam  F.  Keim,  John  L.  Sullivan,  John  P.  Miller,  L.  A. 
Yeiser,  J.  Hampton  Moore,  William  J.  Hammer,  and 
James  G.  Barnwell. 


procession  ot  Students  ot  "dntversitB  of  Pennsylvania 

Much  eclat  was  added  to  the  ceremonies  by  the 
presence  of  the  greater  part  of  the  graduating  classes 
of  1899  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  procession  of  the  students  was  formed  on 
the  campus  of  the  University  at  3.15  P.  M.,  headed 
by  the  Municipal  Band;  they  marched  down  Walnut 
Street  to  Seventeenth  Street,  Seventeenth  Street  to 
Chestnut  Street,  Chestnut  Street  to  the  Opera 
House,  where  they  occupied  seats  which  had  been 
reserved  for  them. 

The  Chief  Marshal  of  the  student  body  was  Mr. 
E.  D.  Hemphill,  Jr.,  President  of  the  College  Class 
of  '99.  Mr.  Hemphill  was  assisted  by  Mr.  John  J. 
Sullivan,  President  of  the  Law  Class  of  '99;  Dr. 
W.  F.  Keim,  President  of  the  Medical  Class  of  '99; 
Mr.  L.  A.  Yeiser,  President  of  the  Dental  Class  of 
'99;  and  Mr.  John  P.  Miller,  President  of  the  Vet 
erinary  Class  of  '99. 


Ube  Bbbresses  at  tbe  ©pera  IHouse 


Stresses  at  tbe  ©pera  Ibouse 


THE  meeting  at  the  Chestnut  Street  Opera  House 
was  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Eugene  Ellicott,  the 
assistant  to  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Penn 
sylvania,  who  occupied  the  chair  during  the  exer 
cises.  Mr.  Ellicott  first  introduced  Provost  Charles 
C.  Harrison. 

ADDRESS  OF  PROVOST  CHARLES  C. 
HARRISON, 

Of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — It  is  a  very  great 
pleasure  to  me  to  extend  on  behalf  of  the  benefactor 
of  to-day  and  on  behalf  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  the 
Franklin  Institute,  the  Library  Company  of  Philadel 
phia,  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospital  a  most  cordial  greeting  and 
welcome  to  this  assembly,  and  to  open  with  a  few 
words  of  prelude  the  ceremonies  which  are  about  to 
take  place. 

With  becoming  and  characteristic  modesty,  the 
man  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  this  pious  act 
prefers  to  remain  as  inconspicuous  as  circumstances 
will  permit.  I  need  hardly  refer,  however,  to  the 
realization  of  Mr.  Strawbridge's  gift  without  ven 
turing  to  suggest  that  it  affords  a  true  and  sincere 
ground  for  all  of  us  interested  in  the  city  of  our 

(15) 


1 6  ADDRESS    OF 

affection  to  rest  awhile  and  to  reflect  each  for  him 
self  as  to  what  are  the  conditions  which  make  a  city 
truly  great.  Upon  this  occasion,  which  Mr.  Straw- 
bridge  has  made  so  emphatic,  we  may  well  look  at 
the  work  of  Franklin  and  of  the  societies  and  insti 
tutions  which  he  founded — of  which  he  was  a  part 
and  which  he  inspired — and  recollect  that  they  will 
last  as  long  as  the  city  lasts,  and  that  their  work 
will  last  longer.  Are  we  not  brought  to  think,  upon 
such  an  occasion  as  this,  of  the  difference  between 
what  is  ephemeral  and  what  is  permanent,  and  of 
our  own  civic  duty  and  of  the  city's  duty,  to  safe 
guard  the  one  and  not  the  other,  so  that  each  gen 
eration  may  transmit  such  institutions  to  the  next 
with  an  increased  momentum  of  efficiency? 

What  the  six  institutions,  which  are  here  united, 
compass  in  their  public  good,  is  best  set  forth  in 
these  noble  words  of  the  president  of  Harvard  Uni 
versity,  when  he  said: — 

"All  the  professions  called  learned  or  scientific 
are  fed  by  them;  the  whole  school  system  depends 
upon  them,  and  could  not  be  maintained  in  effi 
ciency  without  them;  they  foster  piety,  art,  liter 
ature,  and  poetry;  they  gather  in  and  preserve  the 
intellectual  capital  of  the  race,  and  are  the  store 
houses  of  the  acquired  knowledge  on  which  inven 
tion  and  progress  depend;  they  enlarge  the  bound 
aries  of  knowledge;  they  maintain  the  standards  of 
honor,  public  duty,  and  public  spirit,  and  diffuse  the 
refinement,  culture,  and  spirituality  without  which 
added  wealth  would  only  be  added  grossness  and 
corruption." 

The  thought  which  I  would  like  modestly  to  sug 
gest  at  this  time  is  that  of  a  scientific  union  for 
Philadelphia — for  such  great  alliances  exist  else 
where — composed  of  representatives  each  of  the 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  I/ 

learned  societies,  impressed  with  the  need  of  united 
action  in  upholding  the  city's  literary  and  scientific 
standing,  and  working  in  cordial  and  sympathetic 
association.  And  I  feel  quite  sure  that  the  events 
of  to-day  will  have  a  greater  fruition,  if,  in  addition 
to  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  and  the  recollection 
of  the  man  Franklin,  we  may  imitate  his  power  of 
combination,  and  associate  ourselves  in  such  alliance 
for  the  highest  purposes  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Provost  Harrison's  address 
of  welcome,  Mr.  Ellicott  introduced  Hon.  James  M. 
Beck,  United  States  Attorney  for  the  Eastern  Dis 
trict  of  Pennsylvania,  the  orator  of  the  day. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  JAMES  M.  BECK. 

MY  FELLOW  CITIZENS: — Had  you  walked  down 
High  Street  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago  you 
would  have  noticed  near  the  market  place  an  unpre 
tentious  dwelling,  whose  first  floor  was  also  a  shop. 
There  you  would  have  seen  a  stalwart  young  man  of 
thirty-three  years,  with  eyes  so  clear  and  penetrating 
that  they  seemed  to  look  into  the  very  heart  of 
things,  and  a  smile  so  genial  and  captivating  as  to 
charm  friend  and  stranger  alike.  Were  you  tempted 
to  buy,  he  would  have  left  his  printing  press  long 
enough  to  serve  you  with  any  of  his  wares,  which 
at  least  in  variety,  if  not  in  quantity,  would  not  have 
done  discredit  to  a  modern  department  store,  for  you 
could  have  bought  imported  books  or  perfumed 
soap,  legal  blanks  or  Rhode  Island  cheese,  Dutch 
quills  or  live  geese  feathery,  peddlers'  books  or  Bohea 
tea,  the  current  almanac  of  Poor  Richard,  then  in 
great  demand,  or  a  gallon  of  sack,  of  whose  quality, 


1 8  ADDRESS   OF 

if  his  advertisement  is  to  be  believed,  even  Falstaff 
would  not  have  disapproved.  Or  if  you  had  called 
in  response  to  the  advertisement  in  the  Gazette  that 
"B.  Franklin  pays  ready  money  for  old  rags,"  he 
would  have  driven  a  bargain  with  you,  and  then  have 
brought  his  purchase  home  in  a  wheelbarrow. 

If  you  had  asked  the  good  people  of  Philadelphia, 
then  a  country  village  of  about  fifteen  thousand 
people,  who  and  what  manner  of  man  this  printer- 
merchant  was,  they  would  have  told  you  that  he 
had  landed  fifteen  years  before  at  Market  Street 
wharf  a  penniless  and  unknown  lad,  and  they  would 
have  added,  with  the  usual  complaisance  with  which 
we  are  apt  to  regard  the  misfortunes  of  others,  that 
the  Colonial  Governor  had  sent  the  credulous  lad 
to  London  on  a  fool's  errand,  where  he  had  added 
to  the  stern  and  bitter  lessons  already  learned  in 
that  hardest  and  best  of  schools,  life,  and  had  often 
subsisted  on  meals  of  a  half  an  anchovy  spread  on 
a  single  piece  of  bread.  They  would  have  told  you 
that  after  working  for  two  years  in  London  he  had 
returned  to  his  adopted  city,  and  after  serving  for 
a  time  as  a  bookkeeper  and  journeyman  printer  he 
had  started  a  printing  office,  where  he  soon  pub 
lished  the  best  newspaper  in  the  colonies,  a  result 
reached  by  patient  industry,  of  which  his  neigh 
bors  were  wont  to  say  that  they  found  him  at 
work  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  before 
the  village  was  astir,  and  would  still  find  him  cut 
ting  his  type,  making  with  grimy  hands  his  printer's 
ink,  or  stitching  his  almanacs,  by  the  flickering 
light  of  a  tallow  dip,  when  the  darkness  of  the 
night  enveloped  the  unlighted  and  unpaved  streets 
of  Philadelphia.  If  they  had  had  more  appreciation 
of  civic  service,  than  I  fear  their  descendants  have, 
the  Philadelphians  of  that  generation  would  have 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  19 

further  informed  you  that  no  one  of  their  number 
was  more  constant  in  good  work  and  more  fruitful 
of  suggestion  for  the  public  good  than  this  same 
Benjamin  Franklin;  that  it  was  he,  himself  self-edu 
cated  and  living  in  a  community  of  unlettered  people, 
which  could  boast  of  no  public  and  but  one  private 
library,  who  had  formed  the  Junto,  destined  to  be 
the  most  famous  of  all  associations  for  self-improve 
ment  and  the  foundation  upon  which  the  goodly  and 
noble  superstructure  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  was  to  be  erected;  that  he  had  founded  a  pub 
lic  library  with  the  then  peculiar  regulation  that  books 
could  be  borrowed  and  taken  by  the  reader  to  the 
privacy  of  the  home,  and  that  he  was  known  through 
out  the  colonies  as  the  editor  of  the  leading  Ameri 
can  newspaper  and  author  of  the  most  popular  al 
manac.  At  every  hearthstone  in  colonial  America 
"Poor  Richard"  was  a  welcome  guest,  and  his 
homely  wisdom  at  once  instructed  and  entertained. 
For  these  and  many  public  services  he  had  been 
made  Justice  of  the  Peace,  Clerk  of  the  General  As 
sembly,  and  Postmaster  of  Philadelphia. 

To  this  extent  they  doubtless  appreciated  him, 
but  had  you  been  a  prophet  and  told  them  that  this 
man  was  to  become  one  of  the  intellectual  giants  of 
his  century,  and  that  with  each  downward  motion 
of  the  lever  of  his  press  his  strong  right  arm  and 
yet  stronger  intellect  were  moulding  a  republic,  and 
that  the  time  would  soon  come  when  this  son  of  a 
tallow  chandler  would  be  sought  by  mighty  states 
men,  feted  by  proud  peers,  crowned  by  titled  ladies, 
and  received  in  audience  by  the  greatest  monarchs 
of  the  time,  they  would  have  rewarded  you  with  a 
smile  of  incredulity,  for  they  as  little  saw  in  Franklin 
"one  of  the  derm-gods  of  humanity,"  as  Thomas  Car- 
lyle  was  afterwards  to  call  him,  as  did  that  learned 


2O  ADDRESS   OF 

Council  of  Salamanca  see  in  the  stranger  with  the 
threadbare  coat  the  inspired  pilot  of  Genoa. 

We,  with  the  greater  wisdom  of  a  later  time,  can 
see,  as  they  can  well  be  pardoned  for  not  seeing,  that 
in  all  the  tide  of  time  no  ship  or  other  vehicle  of 
commerce  ever  brought  to  Philadelphia  so  rich  a 
freight  as  did  the  little  ship,  from  which  the  young 
Franklin,  over  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  years 
ago,  stept  to  Market  Street  wharf,  and  that  while 
apparently  he  had  nothing  of  value,  except  a  silver 
dollar  and  a  few  copper  coins,  in  reality  he  had  the 
wealth  of  a  magnificent  physique,  inherited  from  gen 
erations  of  English  blacksmiths,  the  greater  wealth 
of  a  mind  as  exquisitely  constructed  as  has  yet  been 
vouchsafed  by  the  Father  of  Lights  to  any  child  of 
man  born  in  the  New  World,  and  the  greatest  of 
all  wealth,  the  strength  of  an  indomitable  heart, 
whose  firm  resolution  no  obstacle  could  turn  aside 
or  adverse  circumstance  defeat. 

Nothing  apparently  seemed  more  unpromising  of 
greatness  than  his  environment.  He  lived  in  a 
country  village,  which  still  remained  as  Penn  de 
signed  her,  a  "green  country  place,"  and  was  more 
inaccessible  to  civilization  than  Honolulu  or  Manila 
at  the  present  day.  Its  society  consisted  of  a  few 
families  and  still  fewer  educated  men  and  women, 
and  the  conveniences  of  life,  as  compared  with  those 
of  the  meanest  village  of  like  size  of  the  present  day, 
were  pitiable  in  their  poverty.  The  civilized  world 
could  scarcely  be  said  to  know  of  its  existence,  and 
its  news  of  battles  fought  and  won  and  treaties  made 
and  broken,  crept  slowly  across  the  ocean  in  sail 
ing  packets,  and  was  disseminated  through  the  col 
onies  through  a  few  weekly  newspapers.  The  people 
of  Philadelphia  were  still  in  the  very  childhood  of 
the  race,  ignorant,  superstitious,  and  narrow-minded. 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  21 

White  men  were  sold  in  temporary  bondage  and 
African  slavery  existed  even  in  the  city  of  Pastorius. 
Beyond  the  Susquehanna  was  an  untrodden  wilder 
ness,  and  the  Alleghenies  were  regarded  as  the  true 
boundaries  which  nature  had  set  to  the  progress  of 
the  colonies.  All  of  English  birth  still  believed  that 
the  three  estates  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons  were 
divinely  ordained.  Even  Benjamin  Franklin  would 
have  raised  his  hat  and  bowed  his  form  in  obeisance 
at  the  mere  mention  of  His  Royal  Highness  George 
I.,  that  "Star  of  Brunswick,"  of  whose  claims  to 
their  admiration  an  English  satirist  of  a  later  cen 
tury  was  to  say  that 

"He  hated  arts  and  despised  literature, 
But  he  liked  train  oil  on  his  salads 
And  gave  an  enlightened  patronage  to  bad  oysters; 
He  had  Walpole  as  a  minister, 
Consistent  in  his  preference  for  every  kind  of  corruption." 

These,  however,  are  but  the  superficial  conditions, 
for  it  is  true  of  Franklin,  as  it  has  been  true  of  every 
great  man,  that  he  is  the  joint  product  of  that  direct 
inspiration  of  the  Almighty  to  which  we  give  the 
name  of  genius,  and  of  extraordinary  times,  for  as 
Lord  Macaulay  has  said,  "Great  minds  do  indeed 
react  on  the  society  which  has  made  them  what  they 
are,  but  they  only  pay  with  interest  what  they  have 
received." 

The  century  in  which  Franklin  lived,  which  gave 
Frederick  to  Prussia,  Chatham  to  England,  Frank 
lin  to  America,  and  made  possible  three  empires,  was 
destined  to  be  epic  in  the  grandeur  of  its  achieve 
ments,  and  most  far-reaching  in  its  results  upon 
the  after  ages.  It  was  a  period  of  transition.  Hu 
man  society  was  about  to  be  reconstructed.  Upon 
the  ruins  of  feudalism  the  better  superstructure  of 
democracy  was  then  in  the  slow  progress  of  erec- 


22  ADDRESS   OF 

tion,  and  it  was  difficult  to  distinguish  between  the 
new  structure  and  the  old.  Three  mighty  forces 
were  engaged  in  this  work  of  reconstruction,  all  in 
ter-dependent  and  each  to  some  extent  causing  and 
caused  by  the  other — the  dissemination  of  knowl 
edge  by  means  of  the  printing  press,  the  upraising 
of  the  masses  by  industrial  inventions,  and  the 
growth  of  democratic  ideas.  Men  were  soon  to  lose 
faith  in  the  divine  right  of  either  a  king,  titled  no 
bility,  or  State  priesthood  to  ride,  booted  and 
spurred,  upon  the  backs  of  the  masses.  Entail  and 
special  privilege  were  to  be  swept  away.  The  day 
of  the  people  was  about  to  dawn.  A  new  doctrine 
was  to  be  preached,  that  all  men  were  created  equal, 
both  in  rights  and  duty,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  and 
that  the  only  distinction  between  individuals  should 
be  that  earned  by  superior  service  to  the  common 
weal.  War,  never  to  cease  until  final  triumph,  was 
soon  to  be  declared  and  waged  against  every  form 
of  tyranny  over  the  mind  and  soul  of  man,  while 
to  the  individual,  without  distinction  of  race,  class, 
or  creed,  was  to  be  offered  that  "career  open  to  tal 
ent,"  that  fair  field  and  no  favor,  that  equality  of  op 
portunity,  so  far  as  political  institutions  can  deter 
mine  the  conditions  of  the  competition,  which  is  the 
basic  principle  of  the  American  Commonwealth. 
And  the  very  incarnation  of  this  democratic  spirit, 
the  great  exemplar  of  the  plain  people,  the  fore 
most  apostle  of  the  new  gospel  of  equal  rights,  was 
to  be  this  printer  of  Philadelphia,  whose  coming 
kings  should  live  to  dread,  and  whose  strong  right 
arm,  ever  pressing  the  lever  of  his  printing  press, 
was — like  the  God  of  Thunder,  Thor — to  rend  in 
twain  the  English  Empire  and  drive  the  Bourbons 
from  the  throne  of  France.  Well  did  Thomas  Penn 
speak  of  him  in  those  early  days  as  a  "dangerous" 


HON.  JAMES    M.    BECK.  23 

and  "uneasy"  man,  and  a  "tribune  of  the  people." 
George  III.  was  accurate  when  he  described  him 
to  his  ministers  as  the  "most  mischievous"  spirit  of 
the  Revolution.  Joseph  II.  of  Austria  was  wise  in 
his  day  and  generation  when  he  refused  to  meet 
Franklin,  with  the  remark  that  "it  was  his  trade 
to  reign,  and  he  would  not  endanger  the  craft  by 
playing  with  Franklin's  lightning,"  while  ill-fated 
Marie  Antoinette,  in  whose  proud  court  Franklin 
had  stood  in  his  plain  garb  as  the  very  incarnation 
of  that  democracy  which  was  to  be  her  Nemesis, 
was  to  sadly  say :  "The  time  of  illusions  is  past,  and 
to-day  we  pay  dear  for  our  infatuation  and  enthusi 
asm  for  the  American  war."  In  this  mighty  social 
movement,  the  greatest  since  the  growth  of  the 
Christian  Church,  Franklin  was  to  direct  and  typify 
that  fourth  estate,  the  printing  press,  whose  influ 
ence  was  even  then  beginning  to  create  the  now  all- 
governing  force  of  public  opinion.  He  was  destined 
to  enjoy  a  career  which,  in  the  extent  and  variety 
of  its  usefulness,  is  wholly  without  a  parallel  in  the 
history  of  democratic  America.  The  sometime  tal 
low  chandler  was  to  become,  despite  the  prejudices 
of  royal  caste  which  had  prevailed  for  a  thousand 
years,  the  honored  guest  of  four  kings,  to  be  crowned 
with  laurel  wreaths  by  titled  ladies  of  the  proud 
est  courts  in  Christendom,  and  applauded  to  the 
echo  by  the  very  aristocracy  which  he  came  to  de 
stroy.  The  self-educated  printer,  whose  education 
was  chiefly  gained  in  the  hours  of  the  night  with 
borrowed  books  and  by  the  flickering  light  of  a  tal 
low  dip,  was  to  found  one  college  and  one  uni 
versity,  to  be  given  the  degrees  of  the  great  Uni 
versities  of  Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  St.  Andrews  and 
the  younger  colleges  of  Yale  and  Harvard,  and 
gladly  welcomed  to  the  fellowship  of  all  the  learned 


24  ADDRESS   OF 

societies  of  the  world.  The  man  who  bought  rags 
for  ready  money,  and  who  had  no  library  or  philo 
sophical  apparatus  except  of  the  simplest  description, 
was  to  captivate  the  imagination  and  chain  the  ad 
miration  of  the  world  for  all  time  by  a  series  of  sci 
entific  experiments  so  noble  in  conception  and  far- 
reaching  in  results  as  to  rank  his  name  forever  with 
Copernicus,  Galileo,  Newton,  and  Leibnitz.  Like 
CEdipus,  he  was  to  solve  the  enigma  of  the  skies. 
The  greatest  statesman  of  his  time,  whose  towering 
genius  had  constructed  the  British  Empire,  the  elder 
Chatham,  was  to  seek  the  advice  and  information 
of  this  plain  justice  of  the  peace  of  Philadelphia,  who, 
without  title,  wealth,  star,  or  ribbon,  engaged  the 
ablest  diplomats  of  Europe  in  a  chess  game  of  na 
tions,  in  which,  with  a  skill  worthy  of  all  admira 
tion,  he  checkmated  mighty  kings  and  swept  power 
ful  statesmen  as  mere  pawns  from  the  chess  board. 
Indeed,  his  career  is  not  inaptly,  nor  with  undue  ex 
aggeration,  embodied  in  the  famous  epigram  of 
Turgot: — 

"Eripuit  Coelo  fulmen  sceptrumque  tyrannis." 
Franklin  seems  to  me  the  most  typical  and  in 
tellectually  the  greatest  of  Americans.  He  was 
the  first  to  attract  and  hold  the  attention  of  the 
world,  and  he  typifies,  as  none  other,  that  product 
of  our  institutions,  the  self-made  man.  He  was  in 
carnate  democracy.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people, 
simple  in  his  tastes,  companionable  to  high  and 
low,  and  with  scant  regard  for  the  prejudices  of 
class  and  condition.  When  loaded  down  with  hon 
ors  received  at  royal  and  titled  hands,  he  could  still 
proudly  remember  his  modest  beginning  and  the 
days  of  his  early  married  life  when  he  was  clad  from 
head  to  foot  in  homespun  of  his  wife's  spinning,  and 
when  in  his  later  years  he  had  ceased  for  nearly 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  25 

forty  years  to  be  a  printer  by  occupation,  he  still 
wrote  himself  down  in  his  will  for  all  time  as  "Ben 
jamin  Franklin,  printer."  The  two  Americans  who 
seem  to  come  most  directly  from  the  very  heart  of 
the  masses,  and  who  best  typify  the  average  of  Amer 
ican  character,  are  Franklin  and  Lincoln,  and  both 
united  in  their  personalities  the  qualities  of  good  hu 
mor,  genial  fellowship,  generous  optimism,  originality 
of  thought,  simplicity  of  ideas,  inventive  genius,  un 
wearying  industry,  inquisitive  acquisitiveness,  and 
love  of  freedom,  which  are  the  peculiar  character 
istics  of  our  people. 

Some  may  challenge  my  statement  that  Franklin 
is  in  intellect  the  greatest  of  Americans,  and  give 
preference  to  his  great  contemporary,  Washington. 
There  is  a  moral  grandeur  and  dramatic  interest  in 
the  deeds  of  the  Lion  of  Trenton,  which  will  ever 
place  him  first  in  the  hearts  of  Americans.  His 
services  on  the  field  of  battle  appeal  most  to  the 
imagination  of  men,  and  his  inestimable  influence  as 
the  first  President  of  the  Republic  will  ever  give  him 
preeminence  in  its  history.  The  man  on  horseback 
casts  a  longer  shadow  than  he  who  walks  upon  the 
ground,  and  in  the  epic  of  our  independence,  Nestor 
must  give  place  to  our  "king  of  men."  But  in  yield 
ing  the  willing  tribute  of  our  admiration  to  Aga 
memnon,  let  us  not  withhold  the  due  meed  of  praise 
to  him,  who  was  at  once  Nestor  and  Ulysses.  When 
Washington,  an  unknown  lad  of  sixteen  years,  was 
surveying  the  Fairfax  estate,  and  before  Hamilton, 
Madison,  Jay,  Warren,  John  Paul  Jones,  Knox,  and 
Marshall  were  even  born,  Franklin  had  become  fa 
mous  throughout  the  world  by^  his  discovery  of  the 
nature  of  lightning.  He  was  a  power  in  the  col 
onies  and  was  influencing  their  thought  when  Sam 
Adams  was  leaving  Harvard,  and  Jefferson,  Han- 


26  ADDRESS    OF 

cock,  Patrick  Henry,  and  Richard  Henry  Lee  were 
children.  He  had  submitted  to  the  Council  of  Al 
bany  the  first  formal  draft  for  a  union  of  the  col 
onies;  and  was  urging  its  necessity  as  the  delegate 
of -Pennsylvania,  when  Washington  was  making  his 
first  and  last  surrender  at  Fort  Necessity.  Indeed, 
the  length  and  variety  of  Franklin's  public  services 
have  never  been  surpassed,  to  my  ~  knowledge,  arid 
rarely  equalled.  For  sixty-eight  years  he  served 
his  country  and  mankind.  His  services  commenced 
when,  as  a  mere  lad  of  sixteen,  he  fought  for  liberty 
of  the  press  in  Boston,  and  continued  without  in 
terruption  to  his  eighty-fourth  year,  when  from  his 
sick  bed  he  advised  with  reference  to  important  pub 
lic  measures. 

He  was  the  mentor  of  his  countrymen.  He  pre 
pared  them  for  their  long  struggle  with  England 
by  inculcating  lessons  of  thrift  and  independence, 
by  his  homely  and  epigrammatic  wisdom,  which, 
while  it  may  seem  pennywise  to  us  in  these  days  of 
opulence,  yet  was  in  that  day  of  little  wealth  and 
small  beginnings  essential  to  the  well-being  of  Amer 
ica.  He  advocated  the  necessity  of  union  and  as  early 
as  1754  drew  the  first  plan  to  secure  it. 


"  land  he  was  the  champion  and  defender  of  the  col 
onies,  and  rendered  them  two  services,  which  were 
indispensable  to  American  independence.  The  first 
was  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  which  postponed 
the  struggle  until  the  colonists  were  strong  enough 
to  defend  themselves,  and  the  other  and  more  im 
portant  was  the  series  of  effective  pamphlets  and 
satirical  polemics,  not  inferior  in  biting  satire  to 
those  of  Swift,  by  which  he  divided  public  senti 
ment  in  England  and  secured  for  America  the  sym 
pathy  of  such  men  as  the  elder  Chatham,  Burke, 
Fox,  Shelburne,  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  Doc- 


HON.   JAMES    M.    BECK.  2/ 

tor  Priestley,  and  many  others.  For  thirty  years 
he  led  the  Liberal  Party  of  Pennsylvania  in  its  long 
assault  on  the  hereditary  privileges  of  the  Penns 
and  the  visionary  idealism  of  the  Quakers,  which 
was  unsuited  to  those  times  "that  tried  men's  souls." 
Would  the  triumph  of  Washington  have  been  pos 
sible  without  the  formal  treaty  of  alliance  with 
France,  and  the  fleets  and  armies  which  were  sent 
by  that  generous  ally  to  America?  To  whom  more 
than  to  Franklin  do  we  owe  this  alliance?  The  man 
whose  name  alone  of  all  Americans  is  to  be  lound 
appended  to  the  four  greatest  documents  of  the 
period,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  treaty 
of  alliance  with  France,  the  treaty  of  peace  with 
England,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
need  not  yield  in  all  the  elements  of  greatness  even 
to  the  courageous  soldier  and  masterful  President.  \ 
No  American  who  has  ever  lived,  and  indeed  few  \ 
of  any  race  or  time,  ever  shone  so  resplendently  in  J 
so  many  different  ways.  The  traditional  versatility/ 
of  the  present  hero  of  dramatic  literature,  Cyrano 
de  Bergerac,  is  fairly  shamed  by  one  who  was  suc 
cessively  a  tallow  wick  cutter,  printer's  devil,  printer,  \ 
merchant,  justice  of  the  peace,  alderman,  postmaster, 
Postmaster-General,  private  soldier,  colonel,  gen 
eral,  editor,  author,  humorist,  musician,  scientist, 
philosopher,  diplomat,  statesman,  and  philanthro 
pist.  In  himself  he  combined  many  of  the  qualities 
and  achievements  of  Newton,  Talleyrand,  Addison, 
Swift,  Voltaire,  Chatham,  Wilberforce,  Greeley,  and 
Defoe.  One  can  sum  up  this  extraordinary  man 
with  the  simple  statement  that,  "tried  by  the  ardu 
ous  greatness  of  things  done,"  he  thought  more, 
said  more,  wrote  more,  and  did  more  that  was  of  en 
during  value  than  any  man  yet  born  of  woman  under 
the  skies  of  free  America. 


'  43..- 


28  ADDRESS    OF 

That  I  may  not  be  accused  of  placing  an  exag 
gerated  emphasis  upon  Franklin's  career,  let  me 
briefly  refer  to  the  estimate  placed  upon  him  by 
men  who,  by  their  very  prominence  in  literature, 
science,  or  politics,  can  be  said  to  speak  ex  cathedra. 
Lord  Jeffries  speaks  of  him  as  the  most  rational  of 
all  philosophers,  and  adds  that  "no  individual,  per 
haps,  ever  possessed  a  juster  understanding."  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  regarded  him  as  the  "American 
Socrates,"  and  the  philosopher  Kant  spoke  of  him 
as  the  "Prometheus,  who  brought  fire  from  heaven." 
Brougham  says  of  him  that  he  was  "one  of  the  most 
remarkable  men  of  our  times  as  a  politician,  or  of 
any  age  as  a  philosopher,"  and  he  adds  that  Frank 
lin  "stands  alone  in  combining  together  these  two 
characters,  the  greatest  that  man  can  sustain,  in 
this,  that  having  borne  the  first  part  in  enlarging 
science  by  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  ever  made, 
he  bore  the  second  part  in  founding  one  of  the 
greatest  empires  of  the  world."  "The  philosopher, 
the  friend  and  the  lover  of  his  species,"  says  Ed 
mund  Burke.  It  was  he  who  said  of  Franklin's  ex 
amination  at  the  bar  of  the  Commons,  that  it  re 
minded  him  of  a  lot  of  schoolboys  examining  a 
master.  Speaking  of  his  scientific  writings,  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  says,  "A  singular  felicity  of  induc 
tion  guided  all  Franklin's  researches,  and  by  very 
small  means  he  established  very  grand  truths.  He 
has  written  equally  for  the  uninitiated  and  for  the 
philosopher,  and  has  rendered  his  details  amusing 
as  well  as  perspicuous,  elegant  as  well  as  simple." 
One  of  the  greatest  of  English  judges,  Sir  Samuel 
Romilly,  pays  this  remarkable  tribute:  "Of  all  the 
celebrated  persons  whom  in  my  life  I  have  chanced 
to  see,  Dr.  Franklin,  both  from  his  appearance  and 
conversation,  seemed  to  me  the  most  remarkable. 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  29 

His  venerable,  patriarchal  appearance,  the  simplic 
ity  of  his  manner  and  language,  and  the  novelty  of 
his  observations,  impressed  me  as  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  men  that  ever  existed."  Brissot,  the 
leader  of  the  Girondins,  said  that  he  had  "found  in 
America  a  great  number  of  enlightened  politicians 
and  virtuous  men,  but  none  who  appear  to  possess 
in  so  high  a  degree  as  Franklin  the  characteristics 
of  a  real  philosopher."  The  lofty  and  noble  Mad 
ison,  in  announcing  his  death  on  the  floor  of  Con 
gress,  spoke  of  him  as  "an  illustrious  character, 
whose  native  genius  has  rendered  distinguished 
services  to  the  cause  of  science  and  mankind,  and 
whose  patriotic  exertions  have  contributed  in  a 
high  degree  to  the  independence  and  prosperity  of 
this  country,"  while  Jefferson  said  that  men  could 
"succeBKput  none  replace  him."  Horace  Greeley 
as  the  greatest  self-made  man  in  the 
the  world,  and  places  him  above  Wash 
ington,  "as  the  consummate  type  and  flowering  of 
human  nature  under  the  skies  of  Colonial  America." 
"I  have  no  patience  with  anybody  who  cannot  ad 
mire  everything  that  Franklin  wrote,"  said  Sydney 
Smith.  Voltaire,  his  great  contemporary,  with 
whom  he  shared  the  honors  of  the  French  Academy, 
spoke  of  him  as  "the  sage  and  illustrious  Franklin, 
the  most  respectable  man  of  America."  Even  John 
Adams  says  of  Franklin's  reputation  in  Europe  that 
it  was  "more  universal  than  that  of  Leibnitz  or 
Newton,  Frederick  or  Voltaire,  and  his  character 
more  beloved  and  esteemed  than  any  or  all  of  them. 
His  name  was  familiar  to  government  and  people, 
to  kings,  courtiers,  nobility,  clergy,  and  philoso 
phers,  as  well  as  plebians,  to  such  a  degree  that 
there  was  scarcely  a  peasant  or  a  citizen,  a  valet  de 
chambre,  coachman  or  footman,  a  lady's  chamber- 


3<3  ADDRESS   OF 

maid  or  a  scullion  in  the  kitchen  who  was  not  fa 
miliar  with  it,  and  who  did  not  consider  him  a  friend 
of  mankind." 

When  his  death  was  announced  in  the  National 
Assembly  of  France,  that  body  paid  a  rare  tribute 
to  any  foreigner,  by  resolving,  on  motion  of  Mira- 
beau,  which  was  seconded  by  Rochefoucald  and  La 
fayette,  that  mourning  be  worn  for  three  days  in  his 
memory.  The  orator  and  giant  of  the  French  de 
mocracy  delivered  the  eulogium,  in  which  he  said: 
.  "Franklin  is  dead.  The  genius  that  freed  America 
and  poured  a  flood  of  light  over  Europe  has  re 
turned  to  the  bosom  of  the  divinity.  The  sage 
whom  two  worlds  claim  as  their  own,  the  man  for 
whom  the  history  of  science  and  the  history  of  em 
pires  contend  with  each  other,  held  without  doubt 
a  high  rank  in  the  human  race.  *  *  *  Antiquity 
would  have  raised  altars  to  this  mighty  genius,  who, 
to  the  advantage  of  mankind,  compassing  in  his 
mind  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  was  able  to  restrain 
alike  thunderbolts  and  tyrants.  Europe,  enlight 
ened  and  free,  owes  at  least  a  token  of  remembrance 
and  regret  to  one  of  the  greatest  men  who  have 
ever  been  engaged  in  the  service  of  philosophy  and 
of  liberty." 

But  the  tribute  to  Franklin  which  will  most  im 
press  an  American  is  that  of  his  great  and  noble 
contemporary,  Washington,  who  in  the  last  letter 
that  he  ever  wrote  to  Dr.  Franklin,  when  the  latter 
was  lying  on  a  bed  of  illness,  said,  "If  to  be  vener 
ated  for  benevolence,  if  to  be  admired  for  talents, 
if  to  be  esteemed  for  patriotism,  if  to  be  beloved  for 
philanthropy,  can  gratify  the  human  mind,  you  must 
have  the  present  consolation  to  know  that  you  have 
not  lived  in  vain.  And  I  flatter  myself  that  it  will 
not  be  ranked  among  the  least  grateful  occurrences 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  3! 

of  your  life  to  be  assured  that  so  long  as  I  retain 
my  memory  you  will  be  recollected  with  respect,  ven 
eration,  and  affection  by  your  sincere  friend,  George 
Washington." 

His  greatness  can  be  measured  in  still  other  ways, 
and  by  facts  which  speak  with  more  eloquence  than 
mere  words.  No  little  mind  or  narrow  soul  could 
ever  have  enjoyed  the  exalted  friendships  which, 
above  every  other  American,  were  the  privilege  of 
Franklin.  He  seemed  to  charm  almost  all  with  whom 
he  came  in  contact,  and  the  friends  he  made  he  al 
most  never  lost.  Even  his  friends  in  England  re 
mained  such  after  Lexington,  and  the  tie  was  never 
broken  by  the  coming  of  a  revolution,  which  divided 
father  from  son  and  brother  from  brother.  Much 
of  this  must  have  been  due  to  the  exquisite  charm  of 
his  conversation.  While  he  listened  well  and  spoke 
little,  yet  when  he  conversed,  his  auditor  enjoyed 
the  great  and  rare  privilege  of  communion  with  an 
intellect  of  the  first  order.  Conversations  often  rep 
resent  the  spontaneous  flow  of  man's  thought 
and  feeling,  and  are  often  more  valuable  than  the 
labored  efforts  of  the  pen,  and  it  seems  an  infinite 
pity  that  the  conversation  of  such  intellects  as 
William  Shakespeare  and  Benjamin  Franklin  have 
been  almost  wholly  lost  to  the  world.  In  the  circles 
of  friends  which  he  enjoyed  in  Philadelphia,  London, 
and  Paris,  he  was  another  Dr.  Johnson,  with  more 
savoir  faire,  however,  than  characterized  the  opin 
ionated  and  brusque  pedant  of  Fleet  Street.  Ah, 
had  there  been  but  a  Boswell  for  this  greater  than 
Johnson!  We  can  faintly  grasp  what  the  charm  of 
his  acquaintance  must  have  been  by  the  eagerness 
with  which  the  greatest  men  of  the  age  sought  his 
friendship.  Apart  from  the  great  Americans  of  the 
day,  he  enjoyed  the  friendship  in  England  of  Peter 


32  ADDRESS    OF 

Collinson,  Dr.  Fothergill,  Mr.  Strahan,  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  Lord  Stanhope,  both  the  elder  and  the 
younger  Pitt,  the  first  of  whom  sought  him  on  a 
number  of  occasions  for  advice  and  counsel  with  re 
gard  to  the  colonies,  and  the  latter,  when  a  young 
man,  visited  him  at  Passy;  Edmund  Burke,  Dr. 
Jonathan  Shipley,  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph's,  Adam 
Smith,  who  submitted  to  him  the  unpublished  manu 
script  of  his  "Wealth  of  Nations";  Hume,  Dr. 
Priestley,  Lord  Camden,  Dr.  Hadly,  of  Cambridge; 
Robertson,  Lord  Kames,  Dr.  Price,  Lord  Bute,  the 
Rev.  George  Whitefield,  Benjamin  West,  Sir  John 
Pringle,  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  Lord  De- 
Spencer,  Lord  Bathurst,  the  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury,  Jeremy  Bentham,  the  Bishop  of  Derry,  Charles 
James  Fox,  and  even  the  genial  but  pliant  Lord 
North.  In  France  his  acquaintance  included  De 
Vergennes,  Turgot,  the  Abbe  Reynal,  Buffon,  Con- 
dorcet,  Mirabeau,  Malesherbes,  and  Voltaire. 

We  can  measure  the  greatness  of  the  man  in  an 

/    even  more  practical  way  by  a  mere  statement  of 
the  many  positions  of  public  trust  and  honor  which 

\  were  often  thrust  upon  him.  His  principle  was 
yiever  to  ask  for,  refuse,  or  resign  an  office,  and  fre 
quently  he  served  simultaneously  in  at  least  three 
positions  of  great  responsibility.  Among  the  offices 
held  by  him  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  public  life 
can  be  mentioned  justice  of  the  peace,  alderman, 
member  of  the  Assembly,  Postmaster  of  Philadel 
phia,  Postmaster  of  America  under  the  Crown, 
first  Postmaster-General  of  America  under  the  Con 
federation,  Commissioner  to  make  an  Indian  treaty, 
deputy  to  the  Congress  at  Albany,  agent  for  Penn 
sylvania  and  later  for  Georgia,  New  Jersey,  and 
Massachusetts,  colonel  of  the  first  military  company, 
general  for  a  brief  period  of  the  provincial  militia, 


HON.   JAMES    M.    BECK.  33 

director  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  the  Union 
Fire  Company,  and  of  the  Philadelphia  Library,  and 
President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 
As  a  member  of  the  Assembly  he  was  appointed  to 
answer  the  communication  of  the  Colonial  Governor 
with  reference  to  the  taxation  of  the  proprietary 
estates,  to  visit  General  Braddock's  camp,  to  secure 
the  necessary  supplies  for  his  army,  to  raise  and 
expend  money  to  arm  Pennsylvania  in  the  Fall  of 
1755?  when  conflagration  and  massacre  raged  on  its 
borders.  He  became  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  of 
Pennsylvania,  agent  of  Pennsylvania  to  protest 
against  the  Stamp  Act,  and  while  in  London  was 
appointed  by  the  English  Government  to  devise  light 
ning  rods  for  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  and  draw  up  a 
plan  for  the  protection  of  the  principal  powder  mag 
azines,  as  later  the  French  Government  appointed 
him  to  investigate  Mesmer.  When  he  had  returned  ; 
from  England,  and  the  revolution  had  commenced, 
the  work  of  Franklin,  then  an  old  man  of  seventy,  ; 
borders  on  the  incredible.  He  at  once  threw  him-  * 
self  into  the  internal  struggle  which  was  to  determine 
whether  Pennsylvania  would  follow  independence  or 
would  be  a  fatal  obstacle  to  it,  and  became  the  leader 
of  the  liberal  party.  He  was  elected  deputy  for  Penn 
sylvania  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and  as  a  mem 
ber  of  more  than  ten  of  its  committees  rendered 
valuable  service  and  helped  to  establish  a  postal 
system  throughout  the  continent,  draw  up  a  declara 
tion  to  be  published  by  Washington  on  taking  com 
mand  of  the  army,  investigate  the  sources  of  salt 
petre,  negotiate  a  treaty  with  the  Indians,  attend  to 
the  designing  and  engraving  of  the  Continental 
money,  secure  salt  and  lead,  and  report  a  plan  for 
regulating  and  protecting  the  commerce  of  the  col 
onies.  Late  in  July,  1776,  he  prepared  a  plan  for  the 


34  ADDRESS    OF 

permanent  union  and  efficient  government  of  the  col 
onies.  He  served  as  chairman  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Committee  of  Safety,  which  at  that  time  ruled  the 
Commonwealth,  and  prepared  plans  to  fortify  the 
Delaware  and  arm  the  city  and  State.  He  arranged 
the  system  of  posts  and  expresses  for  the  safe  con 
veyance  of  dispatches,  formed  a  line  of  packet  ves 
sels  to  sail  between  Europe  and  America,  helped 
to  promote  the  circulation  of  Continental  money, 
and  drafted  instructions  for  the  generals  in  the  field. 
In  October  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  new 
Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,,  and  as  one  of  a  commit 
tee  of  three  visited  Washington,  then  in  camp  at 
Cambridge,  and  conferred  with  him  as  to  the  all- 
-~  important  work  of  raising  and  supplying  the  army. 
After  an  absence  of  six  weeks  he  returned  to  Phila 
delphia  and  drew  up  resolutions  to  shut  up  the  Brit 
ish  customs  houses  and  open  the  ports  of  America 
to  the  commerce  of  the  world,  except  Great  Britain. 
He  was  one  of  the  committee,  which  met  the  un 
known  Frenchman,  who  brought  the  unofficial  ten 
der  of  help  from  France,  and  was  appointed  a  mem 
ber  of  the  committee  to  correspond  secretly  with 
friends  in  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  other  parts  of 
the  world,  and  upon  him  fell  the  greater  portion  of 
this  arduous  and  most  delicate  labor.  When  Silas 
Deane  was  sent  as  secret  agent  to  Paris  it  was  Frank 
lin  who  prepared  a  letter  of  instructions  for  him, 
and  when  the  news  reached  Philadelphia  of  disasters 
to  the  American  army  in  Canada,  it  was  again  the 
aged  Franklin,  who  was  appointed  on  a  committee 
to  confer  with  General  Arnold,  and  although  the 
Winter  had  not  passed,  this  grand  old  man,  nothing 
daunted  by  age  or  the  evident  dangers  of  the  jour 
ney,  left  Philadelphia,  journeyed  to  Montreal,  and 
conferred  with  the  generals  in  camp.  He  had  hardly 


HON.   JAMES    M.    BECK.  35 

returned  to  Philadelphia  before  he  was  elected  to 
a  Constitutional  Convention  to  frame  a  Constitution 
for  the  province,  of  which  convention  he  was  unani 
mously  chosen  president.  Not  least  in  honor,  he 
was  appointed  by  Congress  one  of  the  Committee 
of  Five  to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
These  were  the  labors  of  Hercules,  and  it  is  not  sur 
prising  that  we  find  him  writing  to  Dr.  Priestley  • 
that  they  commenced  at  six  in  the  morning  with  the 
Committee  of  Safety,  where  he  worked  until  nine, 
when  he  went  to  Congress,  which  was  in  session 
until  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  while  the  re 
mainder  of  the  day  until  far  in  the  night  was  spent 
in  conferring  with  the  various  committees  and  super 
vising  with  his  marvelous  knowledge  of  detail  and 
executive  capacity  the  intricate  and  arduous  work 
of  at  once  constructing  and  defending  a  new  Gov 
ernment. 

When  Congress  resolved  to  send  an  embassy  to 
France  he  was  unanimously  elected.  It  was  no 
small  or  easy  task  for  him  at  his  time  of  life,  with 
English  privateers  guarding  the  ocean,  to  accept 
so  difficult  and  dangerous  a  mission,  but  without 
hesitation  or  fear  of  consequences  he  at  once  said 
to  Dr.  Rush,  who  sat  next  to  him,  "I  am  old  and 
good  for  nothing,  but,  as  the  storekeepers  say  of 
their  remnants  of  cloth,  'I  am  but  a  fag  end,  you 
may  have  me  for  what  you  please/ '  When  he 
reached  Paris  the  affairs  of  America  were  desperate, 
but  he  soon  procured  substantial  assistance  in 
money  and  arms,  and  later  the  all-important  treaty 
of  alliance.  He  finally  became  the  sole  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  in  France,  and  with  his  grandson 
as  a  single  clerk  did  work  which  has  rarely  been  \ 
surpassed  either  in  importance  or  difficulty  in  the  ; 
whole  annals  of  diplomacy.  His  duties  were  far 


36  ADDRESS    OF 

more  than  those  of  a  diplomat.  They  became  those 
of  the  treasurer  of  the  United  States,  for  when  re 
sources  were  exhausted  and  credit  gone,  and  Robert 
Morris  was  begging  from  door  to  door  on  his  per 
sonal  credit  the  means  to  keep  Washington's  army 
together  and  prevent  its  disintegration,  Congress, 
in  its  last  bitter  extremity,  had  recourse  to  draw 
ing  bills  on  Dr.  Franklin,  with  a  sublime  faith  that 
in  some  way  the  genius  of  the  old  man  would  enable 
him  to  meet  them.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Jay,  "The 
stream  of  bills  which  I  found  coming  upon  us  both 
has  terrified  and  vexed  me  to  such  a  degree  that  I 
have  been  deprived  of  sleep,  and  so  much  indisposed 
by  continual  anxiety  as  to  be  rendered  almost  in 
capable  of  writing."  Washington  wrote  to  Frank 
lin,  showing  the  desperate  nature  of  the  crisis,  "We 
must  have  one  of  two  things — peace  or  money  from 
France,"  and  to  the  same  import  came  letters  from 
Robert  Morris  and  other  members  of  Congress. 
Franklin  wrote  a  letter  to  De  Vergennes,  which  ap 
pealed  so  strongly  both  to  the  chivalry  and  interest 
of  France  that  he  obtained  six  million  francs  for 
immediate  transmission  to  America,  a  gift  the  more 
remarkable  when  we  consider  that  France  was  her 
self  at  war,  and  in  sore  need  of  its  sinews. 

His  labors  became  so  arduous  that  when  the  crisis 
was  passed  he  requested  to  be  relieved.  The  only 
reply  was  to  add  to  his  heavy  burdens  by  appoint 
ing  him  commissioner  with  Adams  and  Jay  to  con 
sider  the  tenders  of  peace,  and,  undaunted  by  the 
immensity  of  his  labors  and  by  his  unbroken  fifty 
years  of  public  service,  he  proceeded  to  conduct  and 
supervise  these  negotiations  with  both  England  and 
France.  On  his  return  from  France,  after  nine 
years  of  absence  and  arduous  toil,  he  might  well 
have  pleaded  exemption  from  further  service.  He 


HON.   JAMES   M.    BECK.  37 

was  then  seventy-nine  years  of  age,  suffering  from 
an  incurable  malady,  which  made  any  motion  on  his 
part  painful  to  the  verge  of  torture,  and  yet  he  had 
hardly  returned  to  America  before  he  was  elected 
the  first  President  of  Pennsylvania  and  a  member 
of  the  Federal  Convention  to  frame  the  Constitu 
tion.  Well  could  he  say  with  his  usual  good  nature, 
"I  have  not  firmness  enough  to  resist  a  unanimous 
desire  of  my  country  folk,  and  I  find  myself  har 
nessed  again  in  their  service  for  another  year.  They 
engrossed  the  prime  of  my  life,  they  have  eaten  my 
flesh,  and  seem  resolved  now  to  pick  my  bones." 
Twice  he  was  reflected  President  of  the  State,  and 
served  as  its  chief  executive,  although  sick  and  in 
firm  in  health  and  past  his  eightieth  year. 

Elected  to  the  Constitutional  Convention,  he  sat 
as  a  member  for  nearly  four  months,  and  his  services 
on  the  floor  were  invaluable.  It  was  he — the  so- 
called  atheist — who  proposed  at  a  critical  time  that 
the  help  of  God  should  be  invoked  by  prayer  to 
solve  difficulties  which  seemed  insuperable,  and  in 
which  he  uttered  the  well-known  sentence,  which — 
"lest  we  forget" — should  be  written  in  letters  of 
gold  upon  the  Capitol  of  our  country: — 

"I  have  lived,  sir,  a  long  time,  and  the  longer  I 
live  the  more  convincing  proofs  I  see  of  this  truth, 
that  God  governs  in  the  affairs  of  men,  and  if  a 
sparrow  cannot  fall  to  the  ground  without  His 
notice,  is  it  probable  that  an  empire  can  rise  without 
his  aid?" 

When  disagreement  with  consequent  disruption 
of  the  Confederation  seemed  inevitable  on  the  ques 
tion  of  representation,  it  was  Franklin  who  pro- 
\  posed  the  happy  expedient  which  solved  the  diffi 
culty,  of  an  equal  representation  of  all  the  States 
\  in  the  Senate  and  a  proportionate  representation  in 


38  ADDRESS    OF 

the  House,  and  it  is  within  the  bounds  of  sober 
statement  to  say  that  this  happy  compromise  saved 
the  Constitution  and  with  it  the  nation.  When, 
their  arduous  labors  ended,  the  members  voted  for 
the  Constitution,  it  was  again  the  sage  old  doctor 
who  gained  the  formal  approval  to  the  instrument 
of  a  considerable  minority  by  one  of  his  most  tact 
ful  and  witty  speeches,  but  for  which  unanimity, 
adoption  by  the  States  might  have  been  impossible. 
It  was  he,  prophet  and  sage  as  well  as  statesman, 
who,  when  the  members  were  signing  the  immortal 
instrument,  looked  "towards  the  President's  chair, 
at  the  back  of  which  a  rising  sun  happened  to  be 
painted,  and  observed  to  the  few  members  near  him 
that  painters  had  found  it  difficult  to  distinguish 
in  their  art  a  rising  from  a  setting  sun,"  and  there 
upon  this  old  man,  who  knew  that  he  could  not  live 
to  see  the  prosperity  and  greatness  of  his  beloved 
country,  to  whose  construction  he  had  given  the 
mighty  labors  of  his  life,  and  who  knew,  that  like 

•  Moses  from  Pisgah's  height,  he  could  only  view 
from  afar  the  promised  land,  but  not  enter,  said,  "I 
have  often  and  often  in  the  course  of  this  session 
and  the  vicissitudes  of  my  hopes  and  fears  as  to 
its  issue,  looked  behind  the  President  without  being 
able  to  tell  whether  it  was  rising  or  setting,  and 
now  at  length  I  have  the  happiness  to  know  that  it 
is  a  rising  and  not  a  setting  sun." 

These  varied  positions  of  trust  and  honor  were  the 
estimate  placed  upon  Franklin  by  those  who  knew 
him  in  his  life,  and  it  cannot  be  that  posterity  will 
be  content  to  value  less  public  services  so  unequaled 
in  extent,  variety,  and  importance.  Indeed,  the  best 
tribute  to  Franklin  may  have  been  that  of  a  revolu 
tionary  club  in  Paris,  which  in  celebrating  his  death 

^  placed  his  bust,  crowned  with  oak  leaves,  on  a  ped- 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  39 

estal,  upon  which  was  written  the  single  word  "Vir" 
It  expresses  the  whole  truth.  In  the  vigor  of  his 
body,  strength  of  his  mind,  and  magnificent  cour 
age  of  his  heart,  he  was  preeminently  a  man,  of 
whom  one  can  say,  in  the  sublime  words  of  the 
greatest  of  his  race,  "What  a  piece  of  work  is  man! 
how  noble  in  reason!  how  infinite  in  faculty!  in 
form  and  moving,  how  express  and  admirable!  in 
action,  how  like  an  angel!  in  apprehension,  how  like  'kyr 

a  god!" 

Such  is  the  man  in  whose  honor  we  are  met  to 
day.  We  are  assembled  to  accept  at  the  hands  of 
one  of  the  most  public  spirited  of  our  townsmen  a" 
noble  statue  of  Philadelphia's  greatest  citizen,  and 
I  would  fail  to  voice  your  sentiments  or  my  own, 
did  I  not  express  to  the  generous  donor  of  this 
statue  our  appreciation  as  a  community  of  a  gift, 
which  will  not  only  serve  for  centuries  to  come  to 
adorn  one  of  our  leading  thoroughfares,  but  will  call 
to  the  mind  of  generations  yet  unborn  the  incom 
parable  achievements  of  the  printer  of  Philadelphia. 
It  is  also  a  source  of  gratification  that  this  noble 
work  of  art  is  itself  the  product  of  a  Philadelphia 
sculptor,  for  whom  as  yet  there  has  been,  after  our 
manner  as  a  community,  but  too  scant  recognition, 
to  whom  we  also  extend  our  cordial  congratulations. 
The  location  of  the  statue  is  most  appropriate. 
Situated  in  front  of  the  Federal  Building,  it  will 
call  to  mind  the  imposing  part  which  Franklin 
played  in  the  founding  of  the  Republic.  Standing 
upon  the  former  site  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  it  will  serve  to  remind  our  people  of  that 
great  institution  of  learning,  which  Franklin  did  so 
much  to  develop,  and  whose  advancement  should 
be  the  object  of  our  earnest  solicitude. 

More  than  this,  the  statue  should  serve  to  call 


4O  ADDRESS   OF 

to  our  minds,  even  though  it  result  in  our  humili 
ation,  our  neglect  of  his  memory.  Indeed,  the  very 
suggestion  of  this  statue  came  from  the  strange  in 
difference  of  Philadelphia  to  the  memory  of  her 
greatest  son.  The  generous  donor  of  this  statue  at 
tended  a  dinner  several  years  ago  with  one,  who, 
if  I  believed  in  the  transmigration  of  souls,  I  would 
think  was  Franklin  re-incarnated,  for  I  know  of  no 
one  of  this  generation  who  in  the  versatility  of  his 
accomplishments,  vigor  of  mind,  never-tiring  indus 
try  and  loyal  devotion  to  the  public  good,  more  re 
sembled  Franklin  than  the  late  Dr.  William  Pepper. 
At  this  dinner  Dr.  Pepper  commented  upon  the  fact 
that  although  Franklin  was  dead  for  more  than  a 
century,  Philadelphia  had  failed  to  commemorate 
his  incomparable  services  to  his  city,  his  country, 
and  mankind  by  any  fitting  or  adequate  memorial. 
Inspired  by  this  suggestion,  Mr.  Justus  C.  Straw- 
bridge  has  added  another  to  his  long  list  of  useful 
and  for  the  most  part  unknown  benefactions. 

Philadelphia  is  slow — in  self-appreciation.  She 
does  not,  like  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  say  to  her 
talented  children,  "These  are  my  jewels,"  but  on  the 
contrary  seems  strangely  indifferent  to  her  offspring. 
For  her  noble  founder,  one  of  the  loftiest  spirits  of 
his  century,  she  has  no  adequate  memorial,  unless 
we  accept  the  bronze  monstrosity  on  the  tower  of 
the  City  Hall.  She  has  permitted  the  mortal  re 
mains  of  Franklin  to  rest  in  a  neglected  corner  of 
an  abandoned  cemetery,  and  his  very  dwelling  to  be 
destroyed.  The  heroic  devotion  of  her  great  finan 
cier,  Robert  Morris,  she  gratefully  rewarded  with 
imprisonment  in  a  debtor's  jail,  and  to  this  hour  no 
statue  exists  to  commemorate  his  services.  She 
maligned  Girard  after  he  had  risked  his  life  to  save 
her  people  from  the  deadly  scourge  of  the  yellow 


HON.   JAMES    M.    BECK.  41 

fever,  and  when  he  had  made  her  the  legatee  of  an 
imperial  fortune,  it  was  not  until  sixty-six  years  after 
his  death  that  Philadelphia  honored  him  with  a  pub 
lic  statue.  For  Rittenhouse,  Bartram,  Wilson, 
Kane,  Rush,  Gross,  Leidy,  and  Pepper  she  has  not 
as  yet  placed  so  much  as  one  stone  upon  another  to 
commemorate  their  services  to  learning  and  man 
kind.  Florence  has  a  single  street,  upon  which,  as 
an  evidence  of  civic  pride,  are  statues  of  her  mighty 
sons,  of  Petrarch,  Giotto,  Michael  Angelo,  Machia- 
velli,  Boccacio,  Dante,  Cellini,  and  Savonarola.  Phil 
adelphia,  far  from  honoring  until  to-day  its  one  great 
citizen  of  cosmopolitan  rank  and  dignity,  has  pre 
ferred  to  disparage  his  memory,  and  when  a  few 
months  ago  an  English  lecturer,  Mr.  Hudson  Shaw, 
in  the  course  of  a  lecture  upon  the  American  Revo 
lution,  threw  the  face  of  Franklin  upon  a  screen, 
a  portion  of  the  audience  deliberately  hissed  it.  And 
yet,  if  there  were  one  whose  tireless  industry  shaped 
and  moulded  Philadelphia,  to  whom  we  are  indebted 
for  the  foundation  of  most  that  is  good  in  our  pub 
lic  life,  who  from  the  time  that  he  retired  from  busi 
ness  to  give  his  life  to  the  public  good,  labored  un 
ceasingly  to  advance  his  city  and  country,  who  has 
made  her  name  famous  through  the  civilized  world, 
and  who  never  had  for  the  city  of  his  adoption  other 
than  a  helpful  and  kindly  word,  that  man  was  Dr. 
Benjamin  Franklin. 

I  am  not  unaware  of  the  witticism  that  the  great 
est  of  Philadelphians  was  a  Bostonian,  or,  as  Dr. 
Holmes  has  paraphrased  it,  that  Franklin  was  a  "citi 
zen  of  Boston  who  dwelt  for  a  little  while  in  Phila 
delphia."  The  mot  may  be  witty,  but  is  lacking  in 
truth.  The  two  greatest  factors  in  human  develop 
ment  are  heredity  and  environment.  So  far  as  the 
former  is  concerned  Franklin  is  not  the  product  of 


42  ADDRESS    OF 

Boston.  If  heredity  be  alone  considered,  it  should 
be  Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin  of  England,  for  not  only 
his  ancestry  but  his  immediate  parents  were  English. 
Boston  exercised  but  little  influence  in  the  moulding 
of  Franklin's  character,  for  he  spent  but  few  of  his 
conscious,  intelligent  years  in  its  streets.  With  the 
noble  Boston  of  our  day,  the  Boston  of  Emerson, 
Longfellow,  Dr.  Holmes,  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips, 
Agazzis,  and  Dr.  Gray,  Franklin  would  have  been  in 
entire  sympathy,  but  with  the  Boston  which  cut  off 
ears,  bored  tongues,  branded  faces,  slit  noses,  and 
whipped  women  for  the  expression  of  harmless  opin 
ions,  he  could  have  no  fellowship.  Philadelphia, 
alone  of  American  communities,  had  at  that  time  a 
spirit  sufficiently  cosmopolitan  and  tolerant  of  opin 
ion  to  allow  the  great  soul  of  Franklin  to  grow,  and 
he  is  as  much  a  part  of  her  as  the  oak  is  a  part  of 
the  ground  from  which  it  derives  its  sustenance.  So 
great  a  personality  as  Franklin's  cannot,  however, 
be  "cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined"  within  any  one 
community.  Unquestionably  Paris  and  London,  as 
well  as  Philadelphia  and  Boston,  helped  to  mould  his 
character,  and,  rightly  considered,  it  is  Benjamin 
Franklin,  not  of  Philadelphia  alone,  nor  of  America, 
but  Benjamin  Franklin  of  the  world,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  noble  order  of  cosmopolites.  Never 
theless,  so  far  as  he  had  any  local  habitation,  it  was 
Philadelphia,  and  it  was  with  no  unmeaning  phrase 
that  at  the  end  of  his  life  he  wrote  himself  down  for 
all  time  as  "Benjamin  Franklin,  of  Philadelphia, 
printer."  In  so  doing  he  conferred  upon  his  adopted 
city  a  lasting  honor,  for  to  be  the  city  of  Franklin  is 
to  be  forever  "no  mean  city." 

Why  has  our  city  failed  to  fully  recognize  the 
honor  done  her,  or  to  show  her  pride  in  the  achieve 
ments  of  her  mighty  son?  Certain  hereditary  prej- 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  43 

udices,  which  should  have  died  more  than  a  century 
ago,  still  continue,  by  a  mysterious  kind  of  atavism, 
to  affect  a  portion  of  our  people.  There  were  Phila- 
delphians  in  his  time  who  disliked  him,  partly  be 
cause  he  was  a  novus  homo,  or  self-made  man,  partly 
because  of  his  religious  convictions  which  were  heter 
odox,  partly  because  of  the  envy  which  success  al 
ways  inspires,  but  chiefly  because  in  his  long  assault 
on  the  selfish  privileges  of  the  Penns  and  his  constant 
assertion  of  democratic  principles,  he  had  incurred 
the  dislike  and  opposition  of  the  select  few,  who 
formed  what  was  then  called  society.  Time  was 
when  in  Philadelphia  it  was  not  "fashionable"  to 
visit  Franklin.  Time  is  when  in  a  small  and  ever 
decreasing  circle  it  is  not  fashionable  to  praise  him. 
He  had  his  failings  and  errors  and  was  human. 
Of  these  errata  he  frankly  speaks.  His  morality  was 
that  of  his  age — an  age  which  still  applauded  Con- 
greve,  and  whose  heroes  of  fiction  were  "Tom  Jones" 
and  "Peregrine  Pickle,"  and  in  which  a  minister 
could  write  "Tristam  Shandy."  Franklin  was  better 
than  his  age  in  this,  that  he  did  not  pay  to  virtue, 
as  others  did,  the  crowning  insult  of  hypocrisy.  The 
worst  we  know  of  him  we  know  from  his  own  pen, 
and  to  me  there  is  a  moral  heroism  in  the  fact  that 
when  this  old  man,  honored  with  the  esteem  of  the 
great  and  good  of  three  nations,  wrote  his  auto 
biography,  he  freely  and  without  extenuation  for  the 
welfare  of  the  American  youth  and  in  expiation, 
called  attention  to  the  errors  of  his  life.  To  me  this 
was  as  heroic  as  was  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Johnson, 
when  at  the  height  of  his  fame  he  remembered  that 
as  a  boy  he  had  refused  to  sell  books  in  a  market 
stall  for  his  father,  and  went  to  the  market  place 
and  stood  with  bared  head  in  the  presence  of  a  curi 
ous  crowd  in  penance  for  his  wrong  of  many  years 
before. 


44  ADDRESS    OF 

It  is  said  that  he  was  a  time-serving  opportunist, 
but  surely  no  charge  can  have  less  justification. 
From  the  time  when  as  a  boy  of  seventeen  he  bat 
tled  for  the  liberty  of  the  press  by  taking  his 
brother's  place  as  editor  of  the  New  England  C  our  ant, 
when  the  latter  was  thrown  into  a  loathsome  prison, 
to  his  last  year,  when,  within  twenty-four  days  of  his 
death,  he  wrote  his  noble  protest  against  slavery, 
Franklin's  life  was  one  long,  manly,  continuous,  and 
courageous  protest  against  wrong.  His  whole  pub 
lic  career  was  a  protest  against  existing  abuses. 
When  even  Christian  ministers  were  defending  from 
their  pulpits  the  massacre  of  Christianized  Indians, 
it  was  Franklin  who  in  the  very  teeth  of  popular  sen 
timent  called  murder  murder,  and  went  forth  to 
meet  the  bloodthirsty  rioters  and  turned  them  from 
their  murderous  intent.  True,  he  was  not  a  vision 
ary  idealist.  Recognizing  that  all  progress  is  an 
evolution,  he  was  content  to  take  one  step  at  a  time. 
He  fought  vigorously  against  the  Stamp  Act,  but 
when  it  was  passed  he  advised  his  countrymen  to 
avoid  any  violence,  for  he  believed  with  Washington 
and  Jefferson  that  the  colonies  were  not  yet  ready 
to  resist  by  force  the  demands  of  Great  Britain,  and 
like  them  he  believed  in  and  sought  to  preserve  as 
long  as  possible  the  unity  of  the  English  empire. 
He  was  intensely  practical  and  was  never  carried 
away  with  the  hysteria  of  tea  parties  or  other  violent 
outbreaks.  But  when  the  embattled  farmers  fired 
the  first  shot  Franklin  threw  himself  into  the  con 
flict  with  all  the  ardor  of  his  mighty  heart,  and  was 
so  radical  that  he  joined  hands  with  Sam  Adams  in 
the  proposition  that  if  all  of  the  colonies  would  not 
join  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  it  should 
be  the  act  of  such  as  would.  When  he  learned  that 
it  was  proposed  to  re-enact  the  Stamp  Act  he  wrote, 


HON.   JAMES    M.    BECK.  45 

"I  have  some  little  property  in  America.  I  will 
freely  spend  nineteen  shillings  in  the  pound  to  de 
fend  my  right  of  giving  or  refusing  the  other  shilling, 
and,  after  all,  if  I  cannot  defend  that  right  I  can  re 
tire  cheerfully  with  my  little  family  into  the  bound 
less  woods  of  America,  which  are  sure  to  afford  free 
dom  and  subsistence  to  any  man  who  can  bait  a 
hook  or  pull  a  trigger."  In  the  first  days  of  the 
Revolution  he  remained  in  London  when  it  was  no 
longer  safe  for  him  to  do  so,  and  when  he  was  under 
the  imminent  peril  of  arrest  and  confinement,  and 
when  later,  in  Paris,  the  agents  of  the  English  Em 
bassy  sought  to  bribe  him  with  the  promise  of  a  life 
long  pension  and  a  peerage,  Franklin  scornfully  re 
plied,  "These  propositions  of  delivering  ourselves 
bound  and  gagged,  ready  for  hanging,  without  even 
the  right  to  complain,  without  a  friend  to  be  found 
afterward  among  all  mankind,  you  would  have  us 
embrace  upon  the  faith  of  an  Act  of  Parliament. 
Good  God,  an  Act  of  your  Parliament!  This  dem 
onstrates  you  do  not  yet  know  us,  and  you  fancy 
we  do  not  know  you,  but  it  is  not  merely  this  flimsy 
faith  we  are  to  act  upon.  You  offer  us  hope,  the 
hope  of  places,  pensions,  and  peerages.  These,  judg 
ing  from  yourselves,  you  think  are  motives  irresisti 
ble.  We  consider  it  as  a  sort  of  tar  and  feather 
honor,  or  a  mixture  of  foulness  and  folly,  which  every 
man  among  us,  who  should  accept  it  from  your 
king,  would  be  obliged  to  renounce  or  exchange  for 
that  conferred  by  the  mobs  of  their  own  country,  or 
wear  it  with  everlasting  infamy." 

It  is  claimed  that  he  was  selfish,  grasping,  and 
avaricious,  but  to  this  criticism  his  whole  life  is  a 
consistent  denial.  From  the  time  that  he  landed  in 
Philadelphia,  when  he  shared  his  last  dollar  with  a 
poor  woman,  to  the  time  when  he  gave  to  his  city 


46  ADDRESS    OF 

a  considerable  portion  of  his  fortune  in  the  hope,  pa 
thetically  expressed,  that  he  could  be  "useful  even 
after  my  death,"  his  life  was  a  constant  benefaction. 
It  was  no  niggard  who  at  forty-two  gave  up  a  lucra 
tive  business  to  give  his  life  to  public  services,  who 
taught  the  political  doctrine  that  public  officials 
should  not  be  compensated,  who,  having  invented 
an  object  of  great  utility,  the  Franklin  stove,  de 
clined  a  patent  and  preferred  to  share  its  usefulness 
with  the  rest  of  mankind  without  any  profit  to  him 
self,  and  who  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  to  Paris 
gathered  together  all  available  funds,  at  the  time 
when  the  cause  of  the  Republic  seemed  darkest,  and 
gave  its  use  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and  who 
finally  gave  to  both  the  cities  of  Boston  and  Phila 
delphia  public  bequests,  of  which  we  are  even  now 
reaping  the  benefit.  Few  men  have  ever  made  a 
freer  or  more  generous  use  for  the  public  good,  not 
only  of  his  pecuniary  means  but  of  the  abilities  with 
which  he  had  been  endowed  by  God. 

Franklin  is  worthy  of  our  admiration.  As  modern 
life  becomes  more  complex  the  race  grows,  the  in 
dividual  wanes,  and  it  can  be  fairly  questioned 
whether,  taking  him  for  all  in  all,  we  will  ever  look 
upon  his  like  again.  Detraction  cannot  lessen  his 
greatness,  for,  as  Poor  Richard  says:  "Act  uprightly 
and  despise  calumny;  dirt  may  stick  to  a  mud  wall 
but  not  to  polished  marble." 

You  will  pardon  me  a  final  thought.  Franklin 
cared  little  for  mere  rhetoric  as  rhetoric.  Unless  it 
served  a  useful  purpose,  it  was  to  him  as  "sounding 
brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal,"  and  I  cannot  there 
fore  imitate  his  spirit  better  than  in  venturing  to 
submit  in  conclusion  some  practical  suggestions  as 
to  how  we  can  redeem  our  neglect  of  this  great 
man.  I  venture  to  make  the  following  suggestions 


HON.    JAMES    M.    BECK.  47 

which  Philadelphia  could  and  should  carry  out  to 
honor  Franklin,  and  all  of  them  would  be  less  than 
is  merited  by  his  incomparable  public  services. 

His  remains  rest  in  a  neglected  and  abandoned 
cemetery.  We  should  reverently  exhume  them,  to 
gether  with  those  of  his  wife,  and  give  them  fitting 
sepulture  in  that  sacred  edifice,  which  once  echoed 
to  his  footsteps,  and  within  whose  walls  he  did  his 
greatest  work.  In  a  sarcophagus  of  polished  granite, 
not  inferior  in  its  natural  beauty  to  that  of  the  great 
Napoleon,  and  placed  in  the  hallway  of  Independence 
Hall,  his  remains  should  rest,  so  that  the  generations 
which  in  coming  centuries  shall  pass  through  this 
birthplace  of  American  liberty,  can  see  the  last  rest 
ing  place  of  the  great  philosopher,  and  know  that 
Philadelphia  fitly  honors  her  greatest  son. 

We  should  develop  and  advance  the  great  institu 
tions  which  he  either  founded  or  which  bear  his 
name.  With  the  abundant  wealth  of  Philadelphia 
and  Pennsylvania  we  can  make  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  in  the  coming  century  the  greatest  in 
the  western  hemisphere,  and  our  Commonwealth 
should  do  this,  in  recognition  of  the  services  to  the 
cause  of  higher  education,  of  its  first  President, 
Benjamin  Franklin.  Philadelphia  should  provide 
for  the  further  development  of  the  new  public 
library,  which  might  well  be  called  the  Franklin 
Library,  and  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  which,  while 
it  was  not  founded  by  him,  yet  in  view  of  its  es 
pecial  objects  fittingly  bears  his  name.  Indeed,  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  should  condemn  for  the  purposes 
of  a  public  plaza  the  plot  of  ground  between  Broad 
and  Fifteenth  and  Filbert  and  Arch,  and  then  give 
permission  both  to  the  Franklin  Institute  and  the 
Philadelphia  Library  to  erect  noble  temples  on  the 


48  ADDRESS    OF 

eastern  and  western  fronts,  and  the  plaza,  which 
would  thus  be  between  the  institute  and  the  library, 
could  fittingly  be  called  the  Franklin  Plaza. 

To  that  France,  which  welcomed  him  and  which 
sent  to  us  its  knightly  Lafayette,  we  owe  an  especial 
debt.  In  her  queenly  city  by  the  Seine  Franklin 
lived  and  worked  for  nine  years.  Passy  is  now  a  part 
of  Paris,  and  upon  it  is  in  part  the  site  of  the  next 
great  Exposition.  To  Philadelphia,  in  its  Centennial 
year,  Paris  made  a  noble  gift.  Let  us  before  another 
year  and  on  the  occasion  of  the  coming  Exposition 
send  to  Paris  a  replica  of  this  noble  statue,  in  memory 
of  Franklin  and  as  a  reciprocal  pledge  of  our  lasting 
friendship  and  good-will. 

The  truest  monument  to  Franklin  is  Philadelphia 
herself,  and  we  can  best  honor  his  memory  by  giving 
to  the  city  which  he  so  dearly  loved  the  best  labor 
and  service,  of  which  our  hands  and  minds  are  capa 
ble.  To  do  this  we  must  have  the  enlightened 
spirit  of  a  city  of  cosmopolitan  rank  and  dignity. 
We  must  make  Philadelphia  as  Franklin  sought  to 
make  her,  beautiful.  Philadelphia  is  the  one  city, 
which  in  its  very  name  recalls  that  little  nation  of 
antiquity,  whose  glorious  achievements  in  peace  and 
war,  in  literature  and  art,  still  make  her  fame  un- 
diminished  and  imperishable.  America  is  young  and 
the  long  centures  are  before  her.  The  race  for  civic 
supremacy  is  still  to  be  run.  Let  Philadelphia  but 
have  the  spirit  of  her  Franklin,  let  each  of  her  peo 
ple  but  give  to  her,  as  he  did,  the  best  service  of 
his  hand  and  brain,  and  it  will  come  to  pass  that  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  and  in  a  republic  grander 
than  was  Greece,  there  will  rise  a  new  Athens,  and 
a  more  perfect  "City  of  the  violet  crown." 


HON.    JOSIAH    QUINCY.  49 

Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  Mayor  of  Boston,  was  then 
introduced  by  Mr.  Eugene  Ellicott. 

ADDRESS   OF  HON.  JOSIAH    QUINCY, 
Mayor  of  Boston. 

When  I  received  the  kind  invitation  of  the  dis 
tinguished  body  under  whose  auspices  these  exer 
cises  are  held  to-day,  I  was  highly  gratified,  as  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  city  of  Boston  had  to  be  rep 
resented  on  this  occasion. 

The  orator  of  the  day  has  just  spoken  of  Frank 
lin's  connection  with  Boston,  and  has  claimed  him 
for  Philadelphia.  I  think  that  both  cities  can  equally 
well  claim  him.  Boston's  claim  to  Franklin  is  that 
he  was  born  there;  that  he  lived  there  for  fifteen 
years;  that  he  came  from  Boston  parents,  and  that 
at  the  close  of  his  life  he  retained  enough  recollection 
of  Boston,  the  city  of  his  birth,  to  make  to  it,  with 
Philadelphia,  a  unique  bequest,  which  would  reach 
maturity  one  hundred  years  after  his  death.  The 
city  of  Boston  thus  holds  to-day  a  fund  of  over 
$300,000,  which  is  being  put  to  a  use  that  will  well 
perpetuate  his  memory  and  will  carry  out  a  project 
which  was  dear  to  the  heart  of  Franklin. 

Is  there  any  doubt  that  there  was  no  statesman 
of  his  time  in  the  United  States  save  he  who  could  y 
have  brought  about  the  alliance  between  this  country 
and  the  powerful  French  nation?  He  was  so  great 
that  no  locality  can  call  him  wholly  its  own.  Bos 
ton,  Philadelphia,  and  the  entire  country  can  rejoice 
that  Benjamin  Franklin  was  an  American. 

From  the  window  of  my  official  office  in  the  City 
Hall,  in  Boston,  I  can  look  out  and  see  a  bronze 
statue  erected  to  the  memory  of  Franklin,  and  this 
is  meet,  because  within  a  stone's  throw  of  that  same 


5O  ADDRESS    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    QUINCY. 

City  Hall  the  parents  of  Franklin  lived  and  that 
great  genius  was  born. 

When  we  in  Boston,  some  years  ago,  sought  for 
a  name  to  give  our  greatest  park,  we  chose  that  of 
Franklin.  While,  indeed,  most  of  his  career  was 
associated  with  Philadelphia,  we  of  Boston  also  hold 
him  in  as  deep  and  grateful  remembrance  as  the 
city  wherein  to-day  a  statue  is  dedicated  to  him. 

It  is  a  pleasing  and  proper  thing  that  Philadelphia 
recognizes  her  great  obligation  to  her  famous  son 
by  the  erection  and  completion  of  a  splendid  monu 
ment. 

Franklin  accomplished  his  great  work  by  his  early 
determination  to  educate  himself,  and  to  make  him 
self  a  master  of  the  English  language,  and  his  fixity 
of  purpose  to  so  know  his  mother  tongue  that  he 
could  express  in  it  his  most  subtle  thoughts.     He  \l 
\     above  all  others  of  his   early  days,  helped  lay  the    y 
^  foundation   of  American  independence,   and  in  the 
unveiling  of  his  monument  to-day  Philadelphia  does 
honor  to  one  of  her  greatest  citizens. 


Ceremonies  in  jfront  of  the 
post  ©face 


Ceremonies  in  ffront  of  tbe  post  Office 


AT  the  conclusion  of  Mayor  Quincy's  remarks  the 
audience  adjourned  to  the  plaza  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Post  Office  Building,  where  the  statue  of 
Franklin  had  been  erected.  A  large  number  of  citi 
zens  were  assembled,  and  Postmaster-General  Smith 
made  the  following  presentation  speech  in  behalf  of 
the  donor,  Mr.  Justus  C.  Strawbridge.  At  the  con 
clusion  of  his  address  the  statue  was  unveiled  by  Miss 
Margaret  Hartman  Bache,  a  descendant  of  Franklin. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  CHARLES  EMORY  SMITH, 
Postmaster-General  of  the  United  States. 

MR.  MAYOR  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS: — The  high 
public  spirit  and  the  generous  munificence  of  a  pri 
vate  citizen  always  modest,  but  ever  active  and  dis 
tinguished  for  his  good  works,  give  to  Philadelphia 
this  noble  statue  of  her  most  illustrious  representa 
tive. 

Not  only  is  Benjamin  Franklin  the  preeminent 
and  unrivaled  name  in  more  than  two  hundred  years 
of  civic  history,  but  he  remains  the  typical  Philadel- 
phian.  In  his  consummate  moral  and  mental  struc 
ture,  with  its  rare  union  of  sense,  sobriety,  wisdom, 
and  quiet  power,  were  concentrated  and  sublimated 
the  essence  and  the  attributes  of  the  city  and  the 
people  which  he  did  so  much  to  mould  and  upon 
which  he  conferred  so  much  lustre. 

(53) 


V 

54  ADDRESS    OF 

He  was,  indeed,  far  more  than  the  first  Roman  of 
his  Rome.  He  was  a  founder  of  the  nation  and  a 
citizen  of  the  globe.  Among  all  the  masters  even  of 
the  creative  period  of  our  history,  only  Washington 
shared  his  world-wide  fame.  In  many-sided  great 
ness  Franklin  was  foremost  of  all.  But  wide  as  was 
his  reach  and  deep  as  was  his  impress,  to  us  he 
remains  the  matchless  representative  of  our  special 
heritage  in  whom  our  pride  is  centred  and  to  whom 
our  never-ceasing  homage  is  offered. 

Other  memorials  of  Franklin  rise  in  this  city  of 
his  home.  The  University,  advancing  its  ever-broad 
ening  sphere,  stands  as  his  sentient  and  enduring 
monument.  The  Philosophical  Society,  with  its 
scholarly  traditions,  perpetuates  his  scientific  side. 
The  many  institutions,  equally  of  learning  and  of 
philanthropy,  illustrate  and  commemorate  his  com 
prehensive  thought  and  activity.  Above  all,  that 
fame  which  is  universal  and  immortal,  which  springs 
from  deathless  deeds  and  is  part  of  the  world's  prog 
ress,  erects  and  preserves  his  shrine  in  every  mind 
and  heart.  The  walls  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  point 
to  the  memorial  of  its  great  architect  in  the  legend: 
"If  you  would  see  his  monument,  look  about  you." 
fi  If  you  would  see  the  monument  of  Franklin,  look 
wherever  American  greatness  spreads  its  influence 
\  and  wherever  conspicuous  service  to  mankind  is  re- 
-  membered. 

But  it  is  peculiarly  fit  that  this  distinct  commem 
orative  work,  rich  and  strong  in  the  grace  and  glory 
of  art,  the  gift  of  a  Philadelphia  donor  and  the  crea 
tion  of  a  Philadelphia  sculptor,  should  rise  on  this 
spot.  There  is  a  singular  felicity  in  its  suggestion 
and  its  environment.  Franklin  was  the  first  Post 
master-General  of  the  United  American  Colonies, 
and  his  benignant  figure  is  here  to  signalize  and  em- 


HON.    CHARLES    EMORY   SMITH.  55 

hellish  this  great  Post  Office,  which  illustrates  the 
present  magnitude  of  the  service  he  began.  He  was 
the  founder  of  the  University,  and  here  is  its  ancient 
site.  He  was  the  foremost  journalist  of  the  Colo 
nies,  and  the  statue  of  the  typical  printer  appropri 
ately  stands  here  as  an  enduring  emblem  and  model 
on  the  line  of  what  has  become  Newspaper  Row. 
He  was  preeminently  the  man  of  the  people,  voic 
ing  their  daily  thought  and  mingling  in  their  daily 
work,  and  here,  where  he  himself  in  his  living  form 
trod  the  street,  is  the  focus  of  their  daily  exchange. 
Place,  theme,  symbol,  association,  and  artistic  treat 
ment,  all  blend  in  harmonious  and  significant  union 
in  this  worthy  memorial. 

The  lofty  tower  on  yonder  City  Hall  is  crowned 
with  the  colossal  statue  of  William  Penn.  It  is  fit 
that  from  his  serene  and  commanding  height  the 
Pioneer  should  overlook  the  city  he  founded.  But 
more  directly  interwoven  with  the  career  and  im 
pulse  of  the  growing  community,  actually  spanning 
one-third  of  the  city's  entire  life  and  guiding  it 
through  its  critical  history,  it  is  no  less  fit  that  the 
master  printer,  postmaster,  and  leader,  the  peerless 
philosopher,  diplomatist,  and  statesman,  should  for 
ever  look  out  upon  this  scene  in  the  midst  of  the 
surging  throng  and  in  the  centre  of  all  the  currents 
of  activity. 

And  now,  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Justus  C.  Strawbridge, 
who  presents  this  statue  of  Benjamin  Franklin  to  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  I  commit  it,  Mr.  Mayor,  to 
your  keeping,  to  be  reverently  guarded  and  cherished 
through  all  the  coming  years  as  a  constant  exemplar 
and  a  perpetual  inspiration  for  the  people. 


56  ADDRESS   OF 

Postmaster-General  Smith's  presentation  speech 
was  followed  by  an  address  by  the  Mayor  of  Philadel 
phia,  who,  as  the  representative  of  the  city,  formally 
accepted  the  statue.  His  speech  ended  the  cere 
monies  of  the  day. 

ADDRESS  OF  HON.  SAMUEL  H.  ASHBRIDGE, 
Mayor  of  Philadelphia. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — On  behalf  of  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  whose  chief  executive  officer  I  have 
the  honor  to  be,  I  gladly  accept  this  beautiful  statue. 
It  is  a  lasting  and  appropriate  monument  which 
justly  celebrates  a  great  man.  The  memory  of 
Franklin  has  ever  been  dear  to  the  hearts  of  Philadel- 
phians.  He  was  one  of  its  most  honored  citizens, 
and  his  achievements  brought  fame  not  alone  to  him, 
but  to  the  municipality  and  to  the  nation.  He  was 
great  in  his  inventive  genius,  great  in  his  diplomacy 
and  statesmanship,  and  great  in  his  philanthropy. 

His  career  through  life  was  typical  of  the  push 
and  energy  of  American  youth.  He  began  in  Phila 
delphia  with  his  single  loaf  of  bread,  and  advanced 
step  by  .step  through  energy  and  self-sacrifice, 
through  perseverance  and  ability,  until  he  became  a 
recognized  authority,  not  only  in  the  arts  and 
sciences,  not  only  in  education  and  scholarship,  but 
in  the  nobler  attributes  of  patriotism  and  right  living. 
He  was  a  domestic  man  who  did  not  forget  the 
small  things  of  life  nor  the  encouragement  due  the 
weak  by  the  strong.  He  was  an  artisan  himself. 
He  was  at  once  the  printer's  apprentice  and  the 
patron  saint  of  the  "Art  Preservative."  He  was  a 
moulder  of  stoves  and  the  philosopher  who  reasoned 


HON.    SAMUEL    H.   ASHBRIDGE.  57 

with  the  elements.  He  was  the  modest  and  lowly 
husband  and  father,  living  unostentatiously  among 
his  neighbors  at  home,  and  at  the  same  time  was 
the  pride  and  flower  of  diplomacy  and  learning  in  the 
tinseled  courts  of  Europe. 

I       In  all  things  he  was  intensely  American.     In  all  \ 
/   things  he  was  for  Philadelphia.     His  handiwork  is     ] 
y^seen  in  history's  pages  in  the  municipal  development     / 
of  our  city.     He  dealt  with  the  questions  which  con-    ' 
front  us  to-day.     He  was  a  soldier  enlisted  to  pro 
tect  the  homes  of  Philadelphians.     He  was  a  citizen 
who    contended   with   the   problems   of   water   and 
highways  and  municipal  conveniences,  even  as  we 
contend  with  them. 

The  city  has  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  great  men 
who  have  gone,  and  Benjamin  Franklin  is  one  whose 
memory  comes  closer  to  the  hearts  of  those  who  ad 
mire  the  Philadelphia  type  of  man  more  than  any 
other. 

The  memory  of  Franklin  has  never  been  forgotten.  \ 
It  never  can  be.  The  work  achieved  by  him  was  as 
lasting  as  the  bronze  statue  unveiled  in  his  honor  to-  I 
day.  In  their  patriotism  and  in  their  pride,  the  citi- 
zens  have  not  forgotten  to  honor  Franklin  and  do 
justice  to  his  memory.  They  have  been  lax  only  in 
outward  demonstration.  Happily  for  them,  there 
has  arisen  one  citizen  keenly  alive  to  that  chord  of 
sympathy  which  finds  an  echo  to-day  in  every  Phila 
delphia  heart.  It  has  been  left  for  Mr.  Justus  C. 
Strawbridge  to  erect  this  monument  and  to  remove 
forever  a  suggestion  of  neglect  with  which  our  citi 
zens  are  sometimes  charged.  No  Philadelphian  will 
regret  the  work  that  has  been  done;  none  will  deny 
to  Mr.  Strawbridge  the  praise  and  honor  which  are 
so  properly  his,  and  which  he  so  diffidently  accepts. 
He  has  merely  given  voice  to  the  expression  of  the 


58  ADDRESS    OF    HON.    SAMUEL    H.    ASHBRIDGE. 

love  and  esteem  of  all  the  people  for  one  of  the 
great  men  in  the  history  of  Philadelphia  and  in  the 
annals  of  the  nation. 

For  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  I  accept  this  statue 
as  the  voluntary  gift  of  Mr.  Strawbridge,  and  extend 
to  him  my  congratulations  upon  the  unanimity  with 
which  the  people  approve  his  generous  act. 


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